Thank you to my publishers for showcasing the book at the Screen Studies conference in July. Sitting alongside some notable writers – a real joy.

Really very proud that my poetry film and poem Villanelle for Elizabeth not Ophelia is a finalist in the Absurd Art House film festival this year. Villanelle centres on suicidal relationships, and how Elizabeth Siddall a Pre-Raphaelite poet, model and wife of dominating poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti finds life mirrors art or art mirrors life as a suicidal poet and artist's model. The poetry film posits a different ending for Elizabeth not as Ophelia.

This is the second year for the festival and there are different sections being shown:
We are open to all international films that don't fit in, don't want to fit in, or just can't be categorised to fit in to the norms expected of so many conservative festivals (you know who you are)... we are looking for fictions, animation, video arts, short films and very short films. Finalists and winners will be shown in the evening all will be eligible for “the absurdah awards”.

The festival is the brainchild of artist, prize-winning video poet, all-round designer, publisher ... the list goes on ... of Keith Sargent and like the films the location is pretty 'out there' literally and metaphorically as well, since it is on the Isle of Sheppey. Basically this is off the East Kent coast and at the mouth of the Thames estuary, and should set up its own parliament if things get any worse politically in the UK! For those of you who travel a lot the island can be seen in full on the flight path from Berlin to Bristol. The actual screening takes place at the atmospheric and historic location of The Criterion Music Hall and Theatre, Blue Town, Sheerness.​ Looking forward to discovering some equally gritty, adventurous and inspiring work and diving into (or rushing in and out of) the once-familiar North Sea) ... 

Very pleased to be taking part in this conference entitled History/Histories : From the Limits of Representation to the Boundaries of Narrative.
 
​I am presenting on The Poetics of Poetry Film and also touching on my thinking on new narrative and dialogic frameworks in relation to subjectivity, voice and the poetry film. It is running 4–6 July. There are some exciting presentations taking part across this wide subject, so try and catch it online.
 
 

ssTRANAS AT THE FRINGE  2–9 July (SWEDEN)
International screening of experimental films and videopoems
 
If you can get there try to visit Tranas this year, where there are three sections, literature, film and performance arts. I have a great deal of respect for their screenings and curations so I know it is definitely worth the trip. Their details are very enticing!
 
Tranås at the Fringe is a multidisciplinary arts festival in the small town of Tranås (Sweden), a charming place on the edge of lake Sommen, surrounded by the woodlands of Småland. For eight days, artists from Sweden and other countries from different disciplines in literature, film and performing arts meet and put on about 100 events.

I am very proud and pleased to have my family history poetry film Firewash in the Ancestors in Me film section and would dearly like to have gone, but I have just come back from a working holiday abroad and I had to take that opportunity. But the idea of taking time out at Tranas feels a perfect place to reconnect with yourself – and discover and make friends with some amazing artists.
 
INSTA MENTION FOR FIREWASH and The Poetics
Magdalena Korecka is a research associate in the ERC-project ‘Poetry in the Digital Age’, University of Hamburg https://www.poetry-digital-age.uni-hamburg.de/en.html. She saw Firewash at ZEBRA '21 and is kindly posting on it on Thursday 30th June. She says about The Poetics of Poetry Film ‘your book is very inspiring and already on my reading list!’ A big thank you to Magdalena!
Go check out: https://www.instagram.com/ercpoetryda/
 

My paper on The Poetics of Poetry Film, voice and narrative is being presented at the Digital Culture and Audiovisual Challenges conference as part of the 15th Audiovisual Arts Festival on Corfu. The conference is running on the 13th and 14th May.  A big thank you to the organisers and I am looking forward to listening to all the presentations online. 

My publishers, Intellect Books, have put forward The Poetics of Poetry Film for the Kraszna-Krausz Books Awards in the moving image category. I am really honoured to be in the running, and feel pleased on behalf of everyone who has contributed, and look forward to the imminent announcement of the winners!